John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their public service and dedication in recent months and the work they are doing. Generally, the debate and discussion on the issue needs to calm down a little bit. This committee meeting could serve a useful purpose for a resetting of the clock. It is not useful or helpful to talk about overpromising. What was said was based on figures that were available to us at the time. We are all disappointed about AstraZeneca. It is 29 January and I suspect by 27 or 28 February we may be in a different position given forecasting about other vaccines.

I am very grateful to Professor MacCraith for the clarification of his role. From a communications point of view, between the high-level task force, NPHET and all the other bodies, one voice would be great. Professor MacCraith has the co-ordinating role, so he has the benefit of having all the knowledge and information from the various inputting bodies. We could use today as a reset. We had expectations because of circumstances beyond the control of everybody. Those expectations are not going to be met, certainly by AstraZeneca. We should not be afraid of overpromising. There is really good news about Novavax. I would welcome any news Professor MacCraith has on Johnson & Johnson and its vaccine in terms of timelines.